Buzz Aldrin

COCOA BEACH, Fla. - Before founding SpaceX in 2002, Elon Musk had a wild plan to fly a plant to Mars. The idea was to show life on the desolate planet, a brushstroke of vibrant green on a lifeless red canvas.

If nothing else, it would inspire people, he figured, reignite interest in space, while furthering his ambitions to push deeper into the cosmos, even though at the time he had never flown a rocket.

On Tuesday, Musk launched his biggest one yet from the same launchpad that sent Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon in 1969, a rocket capable of boosting a payload to Mars that's currently the most powerful in the world. With the maiden flight of the...

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COCOA BEACH, Fla. - Before founding SpaceX in 2002, Elon Musk had a wild plan to fly a plant to Mars. The idea was to show life on the desolate planet, a brushstroke of vibrant green on a lifeless red canvas.
If nothing else, it would inspire people,...

NASA honored the seven astronauts killed aboard shuttle Columbia 15 years ago, with a special musical tribute Thursday by the son of Israel's first astronaut. Singer and songwriter Tal Ramon joined a few hundred others at Kennedy Space Center to...

As the next generation of the space race sets its sights on Mars, Florida’s Space Coast hopes to reap the benefits with a return to what put it on the map. On this edition of Orlando Sentinel Snapshot, we focus on the space industry’s push to get man back...

Wapakoneta, Ohio, population 9,816, is exemplary of many Midwestern communities. It's encircled by farmland - corn and soybeans, mostly - and prone to spontaneous rainstorms that can erupt on a hot, dry summer day. Most everyone follows high school...

Ripley’s is adding more moon-based memorabilia to its collection, including an emblem signed by the members of the Apollo 11 crew. The items were purchased at a Sotheby’s auction that also featured a bag of moon dust.
The Apollo 11 emblem, which...

Forty-eight years after he landed on the moon, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin rolled out a red carpet for the red planet at a star-studded gala at the Kennedy Space Center. Aldrin, 87, commemorated the upcoming anniversary of the 1969 mission to the moon...

Vice President Mike Pence got an insider's look at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday and promised more glory days ahead for "this gateway to the stars."
Pence is heading up a newly revived National Space Council. President Donald Trump re-established...

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday declared “a new era of American leadership in space” and vowed that astronauts launched from Florida’s Space Coast will someday walk on Mars.
“Here, from this bridge to space, our nation will...

President Donald Trump is bringing back the National Space Council, a group formed 60 years ago aimed at coordinating the nation's activities beyond Earth. But with NASA still without an administrator, it's not yet clear what this means for Trump's vision...

Let’s try this again, shall we?
After weather scrubbed a SpaceX launch Thursday, the space company will give it another go Saturday. An instantaneous launch window opens at 5:07 p.m.
But there’s a chance that Mother Nature might get in the way...

Lightning on the Space Coast has caused SpaceX to scrub a launch that had been set for Thursday night.
It sets up a second attempt to send up a once-used cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station this weekend.
A message on the company’s...

To learn more about the human heart’s response to prolonged exposure to space’s microgravity, you just have to look at the fruit fly, scientist Karen Ocorr says.
To advance that research, she will send dozens of the pesky little bugs to the...

A fundraising effort for astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s education-related initiative gives fans a chance to own a historic moon-related artifact.
Aldrin will hold a gala at Kennedy Space Center and, for the first time, it will include an auction of space...

When the six-part “America’s Secret Space Heroes” airs, viewers will see a fair amount of Kennedy Space Center.
The program, which starts at 9 p.m. May 14 on Smithsonian Channel, focuses on the engineers, mathematicians, designers and technicians who...

Lawyer Mark E. NeJame shares about a friend who mask symptoms of depression — until it was too late. 100 of Central Florida's most influential people weigh in on current events. Read their thoughts on the biggest stories of the week and see what they...

Falcon’s Creative Group has produced a behind-the-scenes video that gives some insight into the technology used in the new Heroes & Legends attraction at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
Ten people have on-screen interviews in the clip,...

The symbolism surrounding next week’s launch from a pad that has been dormant for more than five years hasn’t eluded former NASA launch director Bob Sieck.
It will be the first time a rocket takes off from Kennedy Space Center since a space shuttle...

File this under "earth oddity," perhaps.
Buzz Aldrin, the famed former NASA astronaut who was the second man to walk on the moon, had to be evacuated from a personal expedition to the South Pole on Thursday after exhibiting signs of altitude sickness.
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